How to double your response rates
Last week I was kindly invited by the UK Spa and Wellness Conference to give a talk on raising response rates in direct marketing. Always something of a challenge, not least because this is what I talk to our clients about each day. How does one reduce the work one does all the time into a 50 minute lecture?
In the end I came up with ten points that seemed to me to cover the whole ground. Get these ten points right, I argued, and you will effectively double your response rate. Here’s a short summary.
First off – the functional work.
- Build two mailing lists – one of your customers and one of potential customers. In each case add in not just the postal address but also the email address. There are many ways of obtaining this information, but it is a fact that a large number of companies don’t have such lists – or at least don’t keep them fully up to date.
- Get the technology. By this I mean make sure that you have a way of sending out bulk mail and bulk email on a regular basis. You can buy the software and hardware in yourself – but for most companies the most effective way forwards is to bring in another company to do it. If you don’t have this sorted, we’ll be pleased to help.
Next we come onto deciding how one is going to sell
- Choose the approach. There are in fact five ways of selling (by price, by benefit, by asking an interesting question, by emotional appeal and through humour). Sadly most firms ignore all five and instead try and sell by making announcements, simply talking about the product, rather than selling it. You need to choose one approach and use that.
- Choose one item to highlight. Most of us have lots of products or services to sell but in each email or sales letter you should choose one item and stick to that. Don’t be tempted to try and tell the reader you have lots of other things (if you are enclosing or linking to a catalogue they’ll see that quickly enough).
After that it is time to grab attention and hold attention.
- Write an amazing headline and a stunning PS or final sentence. These are the two things that are read more than anything else. And yet most emails and postal direct mail campaigns don’t have headlines – or a PS or great sign off. You must grab attention at the very start and you must acknowledge that readers skim to the end– they don’t read it all.
- Now write your email or sales letter as a conversation. Don’t shout at the reader by announcing 50% discounts with lots of exclamation marks. Write to the reader as if you were having a friendly chat.
- In considering your layout and design make sure you use the findings of the psychology of perception, which tells you exactly where the eye goes, where to put (and not put) pictures, and what colours to use.
Finally you roll out your advert…
- You’ve done the email or the covering letter, so you now need the blog, the brochure and the web site. These are the places where you do the selling and maintain the interest. The email and the sales letter have gained attention – now you know the reader is reading.
- Keep up the pressure. Write to your customer or potential customer each week with an email or a postal campaign. Some will say, “They will go mad if I write each week” but the fact is they won’t if you keep it lively and exciting – and I can prove it!
- Do a review. Look at your promotion as if you were a potential customer of your company and ask, “why should I buy this?” and “why should I buy this from this company.” If the answer does not leap out and slap you in the face, something is missing. Go back and revise.
I hope that quick summary helps. I’ll try and come back to certain points in the future – but if you want to debate any specific issues, please do give me a call on 01536 399 013 – or alternatively, send a copy of your latest advert to Tony@hamilton-house.com and I’ll give you a call and tell you my answer to those two questions.